Steve Morse Says Deep Purple Members Won’t Retire After Farewell Tour

Deep Purple guitarist Steve Morse said the band’s current tour was a farewell as far as he was concerned, but predicted that other members would continue to take part in other musical projects rather than retire.

They’ve remained unclear about whether their current tour would be their last, after calling it “The Long Goodbye.”

“For me, personally, it’s a farewell tour,” Morse told Koztimes.com (translated via Google). “As for the other guys, then I think they will still be playing. Perhaps in other groups, special projects or as invited guests. I also plan to stay in music, but not so actively as now. But you do realize that, when the music for so many years is the most important place in your life, [it’s] impossible in one day to abandon it. In general, I know that the guys are not going to retire. They would rather die onstage than in bed.”

Morse said he wasn’t in favor of chronicling the band’s story in a biopic, noting that the creative requirements of such a project would mean “trying to add more drama” than the amount that had actually existed. He said the best measure of Deep Purple's success is “when people learn from your music or say that it changed their life.” “When we [hear] that our songs helped [someone] to recover or to overcome some difficult challenges," he explained, "it’s more impressive than any rewards and recognition.”

Deep Purple return to the U.S. with Judas Priest for more tour dates in August. They released their latest album, InFinite, last year.